Post date: Dec 18, 2012 3:52:55 PM
Father of one of the accused who is involved in the gang rape, which took place in New Delhi, often referred to as the 'rape capital of India', says his son should be subjected to severe punishment if found guilty.
NEW DELHI, INDIA (DECEMBER 18, 2012) (ANI) - Father of one of the accused who is involved in the gang rape, which took place in New Delhi, often referred to as the 'rape capital of India', said his son should be subjected to severe punishment if found guilty.
The medical student was gang-raped in the Indian capital on Sunday night (December 16) and was later thrown out of the moving vehicle in a semi-naked condition.The girl's friend tried to prevent the men from molesting her, but the accused thrashed him and raped the girl.
The victim, who is on ventilator support, has severe genital, abdominal and head injuries and is battling for her life in a city hospital.
The police have arrested a bus driver and three other accused in connection with the gang rape. The other suspects have been identified from CCTV footage.
Speaking to a reporter on Tuesday (December 18), father of the accused, Hari Ram Sharma seemed to be unaware of his son's involvement in the heinous crime and maintained that justice must prevail.
"We did not know about the rape case until now. If he is found guilty of rape then he should be severely punished. If he is not involved then he should be set free," he said.
The gruesome nature of the incident has shocked the conscious of a nation where one women is raped every 20 minutes, according to the National Crime Records Bureau, which reported 24,206 rapes in 2011 - an almost 10 percent rise over the previous year.
Delhi's rape figures are the highest among Indian cities of comparable size.
Earlier in the day, students from various colleges in New Delhi took to the city's streets, calling for more action from authorities.
Some of them carried placards reading 'It is the duty of the government to stop violence against women' and 'My body, my right'-an apparent dig at the government for its failure to deter women predators from committing such acts.
Meanwhile, lawyer and activist, Meenakshi Lekhi, who met doctors attending to the victim was at a loss of words and expressed shock over the horrifying incident.
"The condition is so bad that I would not even like to imagine what must have happened at the crime scene. I mean it is really horrible," she said.
Women in India face a multitude of threats, from illegal abortions of female foetuses due to a preference for sons, to the murders of brides by in-laws for want of more dowry, child marriage and human trafficking.
The main accused in the rape, Ram Singh, the driver of the privately-run bus, was produced in a local court and refused an identification parade.
He has been remanded to five days police custody to help find the other two accused, who are presently absconding.
Delhi police commissioner, Neeraj Kumar gave details of how the team cracked the case.
"We have solved the case in record time, you know by yesterday evening we had recovered the bus and we already knew the identities. The raids went on till late at night and three people were arrested by late evening and the fourth was arrested in Rajasthan and he is being brought back. Two others, the parties have gone to locate them and they will also be arrested," he said.
Women's rights activist, Ranjana Kumari said a proposal to set up fast track courts to ensure speedy justice to victims of such crimes was the need of the hour.
"Culprits like these should be given stringent punishment. Under the current laws, rapists are not being prosecuted the way they should be. Almost 40,000 rape cases across are pending in various courts across the country. In 2003 there was an instance of rape whose judgement has come now in 2012 after a gap of nine years. If it takes nine years for justice to be delivered do you think culprits would be afraid to commit such heinous crimes? It is important to put a system in place to deal with such cases. We also demand to expedite the trial of crime against women in fast track courts," she said.
Gender abuses are more common across India's conservative northern belt - which includes Haryana,Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Bihar - largely due a deep-rooted mindset that women are inferior and must be restricted to the role of homemakers.
Powerful community groups of elderly men, known as "Khap Panchayat", which unofficially govern innorth India's Haryana's state, have responded to the recent rapes by demanding that the age of marriage be lowered to 16 years from 18, saying it would stop boys and girls "straying" and prevent rapes.